Richard Stanley Plans to Finally Bring His ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’ to Life

As chronicled in the crazy, must-see documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau, Richard Stanley (Hardware) was fired mere days into the production of 1996’s The Island of Dr. Moreau, which was then taken over by director John Frankenheimer.

But all these years later, Stanley hasn’t given up hope. He still wants to bring HIS version of The Island of Dr. Moreau to the screen; and as he explained in a chat with Birth.Movies.Death., the pre-production process has already began!

“At this stage, I can’t say exactly by who, and how long it will take, but the project does live again, largely thanks to [Lost Soul director David Gregory],” Stanley told the site. “We’re currently scripting and designing the thing. It’s going to be an all-new screenplay and an all-new cast of beast-people; the original creatures are copyrighted by Warner Bros. I wasn’t particularly happy with them anyway. The final designs of the creatures in the Frankenheimer version were disappointing, and I think there’s huge room for improvement.”

He continued, “I’m hoping it will metamorphose into three feature films or six television hours. I’m actually pushing it toward the latter. I would prefer it to be on TV rather than as a theatrical movie or movies, because a) we would have less interference from the studio, and b) we could have an R-level product. I believe that going for the multiplex, it would have its teeth pulled and its nails cut again, and going to television, we could be pretty unrestrained in the way we approach the material.”

Stanley’s “definitive Moreau,” he also explained to the site, will put the beast-people at the forefront rather than the human characters.

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COMMENTS

I’d like to see Charlie Sheen at his nuttiest. He’s already got the tiger blood in his veins!

Jacob & Tab

Wierd movie and very entertaining documentary. The book is bizarre and quite tense. I remember moments that freaked me out. If I was stranded out there on that island, I’d just about go insane. ~Jacob

Sykes

The TV route sounds best. I’m totally down for it.

Colin Christian

That documentary is one of the best movie docs I’ve ever seen,wild,hilarious,unbelievable,an absolute must see. On Netflix I think.

Wyatt

This is a must! After seeing his ideas on the Documentary this movie or series would be magnificent!….DAMMIT HBO GET YOUR THUMBS OUT OF YOUR ASS!

art123guy

The bad news: “I’m hoping it will metamorphose into three feature films…”
In this day and age it’s a HUGE mistake to go into a project like this thinking it’s gonna catch on and make it to three movies. If the first one doesn’t do well, we the fans are stuck with many unfinished subplots. I’m thinking specifically of Amazing Spider-Man here, but I believe Dark Tower was also conceived in much the same fashion. Personally, I liked it and didn’t feel like I was left hanging at the end. If there aren’t more movies, I don’t feel cheated.

The good news: “…or six television hours. I’m actually pushing it toward the latter.”
Getting it on Netflix or HBO, etc, and filming all the episodes at once is the way to go. Even if it’s not well received, the entire story will have been told and eventually released.

How ever it comes out, I’ll go see it (them). I just pray it doesn’t become a CGI fest.

Gabbi Cordero

That’s great and all. I appreciate Mr. Stanley’s tenacity, but what happened to his lovecraftian adaptation of “The Colour Outer Space”?